{"product_id":"troubling-confessions-speaking-guilt-in-law-and-literature-paperback","title":"Troubling Confessions: Speaking Guilt in Law and Literature - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003ePeter Brooks\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe constant call to admit guilt amounts almost to a tyranny of confession today. We demand tell-all tales in the public dramas of the courtroom, the talk shows, and in print, as well as in the more private spaces of the confessional and the psychoanalyst's office. Yet we are also deeply uneasy with the concept: how can we tell whether a confession is true? What if it has been coerced? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In \u003ci\u003eTroubling Confessions, \u003c\/i\u003e Peter Brooks juxtaposes cases from law and literature to explore the kinds of truth we associate with confessions, and why we both rely on them and regard them with suspicion. For centuries the law has considered confession to be \"the queen of proofs,\" yet it has also seen a need to regulate confessions and the circumstances under which they are made, as evidenced in the continuing debate over the \u003ci\u003eMiranda\u003c\/i\u003e decision. Western culture has made confessional speech a prime measure of authenticity, seeing it as an expression of selfhood that bears witness to personal truth. Yet the urge to confess may be motivated by inextricable layers of shame, guilt, self-loathing, the desire to propitiate figures of authority. Literature has often understood the problematic nature of confession better than the law, as Brooks demonstrates in perceptive readings of legal cases set against works by Rousseau, Dostoevsky, Joyce, and Camus, among others. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Mitya in \u003ci\u003eThe Brothers Karamazov\u003c\/i\u003e captures the trouble with confessional speech eloquently when he offers his confession with the anguished plea: this is a confession; handle with care. By questioning the truths of confession, Peter Brooks challenges us to reconsider how we demand confessions and what we do with them.\u003ch3\u003eFront Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eA book so rich in fresh ideas that I found myself underlining as madly as an undergraduate.-Richard Lourie, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eConfession, Peter Brooks writes, is one of the most complex and obscure forms of human speech and behavior, inextricably entwined with our ideas of punishment and absolution, relied upon as ultimate truth and yet treated with profound suspicion. In this book, Brooks juxtaposes cases from law, literature, and elsewhere-from the \u003ci\u003eMiranda\u003c\/i\u003e decision to Camus to the Catholic confessional-to explore the kinds of truth we demand from confessions and the ways in which we use them.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePeter Brooks\u003c\/b\u003e is Chester D. Tripp Professor of Humanities and Director of the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University. He is author of, most recently, \u003ci\u003ePsychoanalysis and Storytelling\u003c\/i\u003e and the novel\u003ci\u003e World Elsewhere\u003c\/i\u003e, and is co-editor of \u003ci\u003eLaw's Stories: Narrative and Rhetoric in the Law\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 224\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.51 x 8.94 x 6.06 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e October 01, 2001\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45259971395686,"sku":"9780226075860","price":55.67,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0599\/7255\/0758\/files\/b3hzVkkvSVd5ZUQvZHRKK3pWRWRhQT09.webp?v=1773859836","url":"https:\/\/infinitylightwa.com\/products\/troubling-confessions-speaking-guilt-in-law-and-literature-paperback","provider":"Infinity Light","version":"1.0","type":"link"}